4 News
THE POLK COUNTY
November 15, 2023
From the
State House of Representatives
As we gather around our Soybean oil is used to make tables this Thanksgiving, hundreds of foods, including mayonnaise, peanut butter, we encourage Arkansans to and ranch dressing. take a moment to acknowledge the unsung heroes of From casseroles to rice this holiday season—our pudding, another Arkansas farmers. crop makes its way to the Thanksgiving is a time John Maddox Thanksgiving table every year. Arkansas ranks first to express gratitude for the blessings in our lives, and the hard- among rice-producing states, acworking men and women who toil counting for more than 50 percent in the fields, day in and day out, de- of U.S. rice production. serve a special place in our hearts Agriculture is Arkansas’s largest this season. Arkansas farmers are industry, adding around $16 billion the ones responsible for growing to our state’s economy every year. the crops and raising the livestock There are 49,346 farms statewide that grace many of our tables. and 97 percent of Arkansas’ farms In fact, Arkansas ranks 3rd in the are family-owned. nation in turkeys raised. But that’s So, as you savor each bite of not the only popular Thanksgiving your Thanksgiving meal, rememdish that may have started its jour- ber to give thanks to the individuals ney on an Arkansas farm. who make this feast possible. Let’s Arkansas is the 4th largest pro- make this holiday a true celebration ducer of sweet potatoes and our of gratitude, not only for the food state ranks 6th in the nation in the on our plates but for the hands that acreage of pecans. nurture the land. In the last year, Arkansas farmYou can help show your appreciers harvested more than 695,000 ation to our Arkansas farmers and acres of corn. food service workers by looking for Arkansas currently ranks 11th in the “Arkansas Grown” label at your the nation in soybean production. local supermarket.
Contact Your Legislators!
John Maddox
John Boozman
john.maddox@ arkansashouse.org 520 Church Avenue Mena, AR 71953 Call: 479-394-6060
1120 Garrison Ave. Suite 2B Fort Smith, AR 72901 Phone: (479) 573-0189 Fax: (479) 575-0553
Terry Rice
Bruce Westerman
Terry.Rice@senate.ar.gov P.O. Box 2195 Waldron, AR 72958 479-637-3100
101 Reserve St. Suite 200 Hot Springs, AR 71901 Phone: (501) 609-9796 Fax: (501) 609-9887
From the
State Senate
Pulse
The Arkansas legislature has districts shall establish a behavtried to apply lessons learned ioral threat assessment team, by other states when it enacted which will look for warning school safety laws over the past signs of potentially dangerous several years. behavior and work with local The legislature also applied law enforcement agencies. the best practices recommendSchool resource officers and ed by the School Safety Comlocal law enforcement officers Terry Rice mission in 2018 and 2022. who work on school campuses The Senate and House Committees are not to be part of routine disciplinary on Education heard an update from the actions against students. chair of the commission, who said that Another important new law passed “collectively we’ve passed some of the earlier this year is Act 787 to require most comprehensive school safety leg- schools to lock exterior doors during islation in the country.” school hours, except during transition In 2021 the legislature put into law the times. recommendations of the school safeThe chair of the school safety comty commission. Act 551 set standards mission is the director of the Arkansas for training of school resource officers. Criminal Justice Institute. She told the One component of the training is youth Education Committee that she would mental health aid. continue to work for passage of laws Act 620 requires schools to have a that require classroom doors and intesystem of emergency communication rior doors to be locked. with local law enforcement, if funding Also speaking to the Education Comis available. mittee was the school safety coordinator Although the legislature has done for the state Education Department. He much to improve school safety, there lent his support to the idea of locking are several more actions that should be interior doors, telling legislators that taken, the commission chair told leg- “locked doors save lives.” islators on the Education Committee. Perpetrators have broken window One is to provide funding for panic but- panels on locked doors and fired shots tons and emergency communications. through the broken glass. But a 2015 Act 648 requires an annual lockdown report, conducted after the mass killdrill at each school in the district. It re- ing in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, found quires all counselors to take youth men- that no one had ever breached a locked tal health training, so they can better classroom door, he said. recognize the warning signs of a mental The school safety officials emphasized health crisis in time to prevent it, either the importance of “hard corners” in through treatment or other types of in- classrooms, which are areas where stutervention. dents and teachers are not visible from The school safety commission hallways, door or windows. Combined learned that many counselors were not with locked classroom doors, hard corspending a lot of time with students, ners in class rooms can save lives by aland some of their main duties were to lowing students and teachers to hide. administer tests. Unfortunately, this year is probably In 2023 the legislature enhanced going to be a record year for school school safety measures by passing Act shootings, the officials said. The record 237, the LEARNS Act. was 46 in 2022, and already there have The act extends training in youth been 45 in 2023. mental health to all school staff. School
